Issue No 797 2 December 1993 iBare ^J^acts University of Surrey Students' Union Newspaper •••••3SSDDD The Union What? You must be joking! Campaign against dosing down... The govemment reform legislation - the Big Issue page 2 Locai Tory to back students - page 3 The Union's fìnance policy - page 2 Also in this week The Budget - what it means for you - pages 3 & 4. Mo Khan, Treasurer Established 1968 Tel: (0483) 509275 Fax: (0483) 34749 The Big Issue "My government will introduce legis- In addition, the legislation takes check ing we're too preoccupied to real- lation...to reform students' unions." on tbe following three items: ise...tough! We caught you! ! ! (Queen's Speech, 18th November 1993). How will this affect the Stu- Financial nght and accountability dents* Union members at large? Democratic procedure The Impact Appeal mechanism The legislation would basically curtail The Legislation The Students' Union agrees with this ele- the Union function to an extreme limit m^t and, in fact, fmds some of it naive The Students' Union would not be able "To remove one of the last bastions of and even retrograde. to affwd any of the following: ccmpulsory union membership" (gov- ernment officiai). The Government be- Entertainment - Free bands, Friday lieves tbe Student Unions force people to Why The Legislation? Night Out, Draw Discos, Charter Ball become members and therefore remove and even The Grad Ball. theirfreedomofchoice. Theybelievethe The Government has given its reason of Societies - Departmental, Overseas, Re- Students Unions are the last closed shop closed-shop and freedom of choice. In ligious or General. and should be "outlawed" (John Patten, the following I suggest a few alternative Non-Competitive Sport - Sub-Aqua, Secretary of State for Education). reasons. Karting, Korfball, Parachuting, Moun- taineering etc. The reforms proposed state that the Stu- The Government has realised that whilst Bare Facts à dents' Union shouid serve four basic it strives to increase the number of stu- RagWeek ^ functìons: dents entering higher education, it also NUS Memberehip increases the potenüal of a vocal voice Stage Crew Internal Representation - (»ily those is- "against" itü! Community Activities sues should be addressed that arìse from The Students' Union as we know it today would coUapse. within the University stnicüire. So, talk- The threat of a large strong-minded body ing to the NatWestbank about their Serv- of pecóle holding campaigns against the ice would be outlawed. Government, like anti-poli tax. The Solution Weifare - the plight of students is con- The threat of such a large body of people There are anumber of ways of addressing stantly deteriorating. The Students' Un- holding tbe balance of power in certain the issue: ion would be able to demonstrate to the constituencies up and down the country. University about this, but not against the Government who are the (»ntral cause of Live with it - but life at University would Is the Government ninning scared? Tbe the plight. never be the same. use of a sledge bammer to crack open a Charge membership - where the Govern- walnut would seemto suggest so. Ileave Catfiring - the University will be able to it for you to conclude. ment is not Willing to pay out of public give money for catering purposes, butas funds, Charge members - CAN YOU ü)is would be direct competìtion against AFFORD IT? STOP PRESS!! Is the Government at- their own outlets, this is unlikely. Campaign against it - please ask a sab- tempting to 'blindfold' us with the cam- batical if you need ideas on what to write paign against this legislation whilst at the abouL ^ Sport - all competitiOTi sport would re- same time they sneak past us in Tues- main, but clubs like Sub-Aqua, Moun- day's Budget cutting Student grants, hop- taineering, Chess, Parachuting, Karting Mo Khan - Union Treasurer and Korft^l would not be funded. Union To FREEZE Funds - NOT! ollowing the Finance Standing Committee meeting on 3. The policy should provide an educational experience, dem- FThursday 25th November 1993, the following was dis- onstrating to such an extent which preempts actions by stu(fents. cussed. Although, in principle, such a policy is well fcMined and I totally In light of the proposed (jovemment legisbuion to reform the agreewithit, I also do believe Students' Unions: THAT SUCH A POLICY, EVEN OVER A SHORT PE- 1. It is necessary to step up the campaign in order to inform RIOD, WOULD SERIOUSLY HINDER AND DEPRIVE students of the potential damage such reforms would do to the STUDENTS OF EXTRA CURRICULAR ACnVTTIES. essential activities which go towards making up the core fabrìc AS UNION TREASURER I WILL AT ALL TIMES CON- of University life. TINUE TO PROMOTE SUCH ACTIVIIIES AS LONG AS THE GOVERNMENT ALLO WS ME TO. 2. Actions speak louder than words, and a policy should be pursued which will graphically illustrate the Government re- Mo Khan 'Union Treasurer & Chairperson forms in operation. of Financial Standing Committee Local Tory to back Clark wields the axe for Students! students in the budget! '^he Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget Speech on Tues- X day 30th November was just one more nail in the coffin for students in general. Kenneth Qark has proposed structural changes in funding overall for higher education but these will not directly affect students. A welcome relief for students was that there is to be no overall reduction in funding and that top-up fees are not to be introduced. However, the body blow came with the announcement that there is to be a 10% reduction in the grant overall and student loans are to be increased to compensate for this. John Patten, Secretary of State for Education has estimated that grants will equal loans in monetary terms by 1997. From the left: Rachel Davison, Comms Officer, David Vin- cent, President, David Howell, MP for Guildford and Tony Knapp, University Finance OfHcer. The actual level of the grant has been frozen since September 1990 and student loans have been increased gradually to ac- t a meeting in the University of Surrey Students' Union, count for the reduction in real terms due to inflation. The ADavid Howell, MP for Guildford expressed encourage- Government has been threatening to reduce the grant but until ment and support for the national campaign against student now has done nothing about it. ' union reforms. The meeting, which took place on Friday 26th November, was Now the Govemment is acting and it will be the death warrant attended by the Students' Union President David Vincent, the for many students: Communications Officer Rachel Davison, the University Fi- grants to be reduced by 10%; nance Officer Anthony Knapp and several students, including an increase in student loans putting students even more in debt; representatives from fC^G, the Christian Union and the Liberal VAT to be introduced on fuel; Democrats Society. the possibility of VAT on books; Student union reforms were announced in the Queen's Speech a probable reduction in student free or cheap services under the on the 18ih November 1993 and the Education Bill was then proposed Education Bill which will reform student unions; published on 25th November 1993. Much has been said by the also bear in mind the fact that students are not entitled to any National Union of Students and by individual student unions benefits, neither unemployment nor housing benefit about the definition of core and non-core areas. There are to be four core areas - sport, catering, welfare and internal repre- It is absolutely disgusting that the Govemment is proi»sing to sentation, with public funds only being available to those areas attack students in such a way, taking away money, putting them defined as core. into increasingly more debt by necessity and making it harder The Education Bill glosses over this, stating in article 20a "that on every front for students merely to survive. financial support provided by them (the governing body of an The Govemment is being hypocritical in that, at the same time establishment) to a students' union out of public money is used as it is beating students into the ground, it is also trying to only for services of such descriptions as may be specified by increase access to higher education. By increasing the prob- regulations made by the Secretai^ of State." ability of large debts for students, the Govemment is defeating TTie regulations have not yet been published, meaning that its own stat^ ^s of trying to encourage greater access to many MPs, including David Howell, are not actually aware of higher education. how these reforms will affect student unions and how they will Universities will once again become a privilege only for the directly hit students. rich and those mad enough to embark on a course of action Mr Howell expressed concern that many student groups such leading to certmn debt as religious societies and goodwill groups such as Community Action and RAG will be hit indiscriminately by the reforms. Rachel Davison Mr Howell said that "it is not an open and shut case by any means" and that he intends to question the Secretary of State further about this. aiiffi Mr Howell also said that there "must be many changes" before this Bill can be- come law. Students' Union President David Vin- cent said that we must be encouraged by Mr Howell's positive reaction to our meeting and that we must keep up the pressure by writing more letters express- ing our concerns to Mr Howell. Ru- mours are rampant that the House of Lords will throw out the Education Bill because of the lack of detail given in the BiU.